Building an AI-Powered MTG Deck Analyzer with GitHub Copilot Chat

Over the past few months I’ve been experimenting with a very specific idea:
What if I could analyze Magic: The Gathering decks inside VS Code, then ask GitHub Copilot to give me actual strategic advice, cuts, upgrades, and price optimizations based on that analysis?

The result is a project I shipped this month:
mtg-deck-analyzer — a TypeScript Node.js tool designed for GitHub Copilot Chat.

It fetches card data from Scryfall, imports decks from Moxfield, builds detailed statistics, and produces small deck-specific JSON caches that Copilot can easily read and reason about. Once the deck is analyzed, you can literally ask VS Code things like:

“What are this deck’s weaknesses?”
“Suggest 10 cuts to get to 100 cards”
“How can I speed this up to a Bracket 4 power level?”

Copilot responds using the exact data your analyzer generates.

Why I Built This

I wanted a smooth loop:

1. Edit decklist
2. Analyze with a simple CLI
3. Open Copilot Chat
4. Ask real deckbuilding questions

There are great deck tools on the web, but none integrate directly into your editor or cooperate with Copilot.
This one does—because it structures the analysis in a way large models can easily digest.

The tool is written in TypeScript, uses Scryfall’s free API, supports Moxfield imports, and provides a full suite of utilities: color validation, bracket analysis, hypergeometric probability, budget filtering, and automated AI deck optimization.

GitHub Copilot: The Real Power Multiplier

The project was built for Copilot, not just “compatible” with it.

Once you run:

npm run dev decks/commander/your-deck/moxfield.mtg

You can immediately ask Copilot:

• “Help me cut 18 cards.”
• “What holes does this deck have?”
• “Find budget alternatives under $5.”
• “What bracket is this?”

Copilot reads directly from the per-deck cache file (usually only ~30–60KB), which keeps responses fast, grounded, and accurate.

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A Quick Overview of What It Does

The analyzer includes:

• Decklist parser for common formats (.mtg, .txt, Moxfield exports)
• Scryfall data fetcher with a unified cache system
• Moxfield importer (npm run import )
• Deck analysis
• Color distribution
• Type breakdown
• Mana curve
• Average CMC
• Commander bracket analyzer (Brackets 1–5)
• Color identity validator
• Hypergeometric probability calculator
• AI deck optimizer
• Card categorizer used by the bracket system

Everything lives in a clean /src structure, with cache files and deck organization kept in predictable directories.

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Perfect Pairing: mtg-code for VS Code

If you’re editing .mtg files, install the VS Code extension:

mtg-code by Johannes Radmer It adds syntax highlighting, card previews, and IntelliSense for MTG card names.

This makes Copilot Chat even more useful because:

• card names autocomplete
• you can hover for oracle text
• your decklists are much cleaner to maintain

Massive thanks to Johannes Radmer for maintaining this extension.

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Practical Example of the Workflow

Let’s say you have a Moxfield deck:

npm run import https://www.moxfield.com/decks/abc123
npm run dev decks/commander/your-deck/moxfield.mtg

Once analyzed, open Copilot Chat:

“My deck has 118 cards—what should I cut to reach 100?”

The analyzer produces:

• a categorized card breakdown
• curve distribution
• redundancy detection
• power-level bracket data
• cached oracle text
• mana base recommendations

Copilot uses all of this to give shockingly good suggestions: “Cut these four high-CMC cards, remove duplicate effects, replace X with Y, and here’s your updated curve and average CMC.”

It’s the closest thing to having a deckbuilding assistant inside your IDE.

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A Tool for Beginners and Power Users

Whether you’re brand new to Magic or building cEDH brews, the tool works for both groups.

Beginners

Follow the GETTING_STARTED.md guide. It walks through:

• creating a GitHub account
• installing VS Code
• enabling Copilot
• building your first deck with AI help

Experienced developers

Jump straight to:

npm run import
npm run dev
npm run bracket
npm run fetch

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Final Thoughts

This is one of the most fun and weirdly practical side projects I’ve built in years. It sits at the intersection of:

• Magic: The Gathering
• TypeScript tooling
• GitHub Copilot intelligence
• Pure nerd joy

If you want to try it, contribute, or use it as a base for your own MTG tools, the repo is here:

👉 https://github.com/alxhghs/mtg-deck-analyzer

If you have ideas for improvements—let me know!